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Possibility

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Not by necessity, of course not. I don’t dispute any of this - hence structural realism. Tao does not refer to a ‘best way’ of being at all - that, I ...
May 09, 2022 at 04:04
Ah, baker, welcome back to the discussion. I can always count on you to take my statements completely out of context. Allow who to feel good? No, not ...
May 09, 2022 at 00:58
Well, I never claimed to be championing Schopenhauer, or what he actually believed - although, to be fair, I haven’t laid out very clearly where I dis...
May 08, 2022 at 16:41
I do think the ultimate imperfection of any being is sufficient reason NOT to create another one, and any expectation or hope that we could ever creat...
May 07, 2022 at 11:13
Agreed! And that ‘margin of error’ plays out in the human condition as suffering.
May 07, 2022 at 05:46
The baseline of the human condition can be described as ‘dissatisfaction’ by those for whom ‘individual will’ is considered the ultimate goal of being...
May 07, 2022 at 05:44
But this is my point - it is the assumption that they’re the same thing that results in prediction error. Just because people think or say that someth...
May 07, 2022 at 03:43
I’m well aware that the illusion doesn’t go away. The horizon doesn’t go away, either, but it ceases to be a limitation once we understand the situati...
May 06, 2022 at 17:52
Sure, but a trend is very different from a widely-held opinion, wouldn’t you say? Pareto’s principle is about the distribution of quantitative value, ...
May 05, 2022 at 23:32
No, the appearance is the ‘individual dealing with these things’. For you, it seems, the world as representation is the reality, being oppressed by th...
May 05, 2022 at 03:31
Because there IS NO one-size-fits-all, ‘concrete’ solution. Because everyone’s situation is different, and changes all the time. Because any step-by-s...
May 03, 2022 at 10:46
Oh, for crying out loud... I didn’t say it was a ‘bad’ situation - it’s a situation. Most people prefer to be blind, to be led around by ‘forces’ they...
May 02, 2022 at 23:50
This makes sense to me. But what about the question: Are squares better than shapelessness? I wonder what value would one have that would lead them to...
May 02, 2022 at 15:42
Some interpret it this way, sure. Doesn’t mean they’re correct, just because they’re ‘insiders’. That’s like assuming Christian fundamentalists unders...
May 02, 2022 at 04:38
Doesn’t mean there is, either. It’s a concept that’s entirely constructed from perceived value/potential/significance in relation to an ongoing sensor...
May 02, 2022 at 02:15
I’m not talking about divine status or ‘higher reality’, only metaphysics. And I’m not talking about escape, either. It’s an opportunity to increase a...
May 01, 2022 at 16:18
AGAIN - NOT arguing for birthing more people. There is no point in bringing this into our discussion. I’ve already commented on Willy Wonka. Go back a...
May 01, 2022 at 08:12
But it does go together. Lack - as an awareness of feeling I don’t have something - entails EITHER an expectation that I should have it - that there i...
April 30, 2022 at 15:03
That depends on your interpretation. The idea of ‘getting through the gates of heaven’ seems to me a misunderstanding of enlightenment in the first pl...
April 30, 2022 at 06:30
Yes, really. Every moment you exist as being, you are also dying, and no amount of compliance can change that. Life isn’t one or the other, but BOTH. ...
April 30, 2022 at 05:53
:ok:
April 28, 2022 at 00:16
There’s no point in saying ‘unless death’, because death is undeniable. This whole mantra of ‘comply OR die’ is false: rather it’s AND, and both terms...
April 28, 2022 at 00:13
What you want isn’t as important as you seem to think it is, and is certainly not a reliable foundation on which to structure anything to last. We’re ...
April 26, 2022 at 15:56
Sorry, you are being imprecise. An event still has properties. Beg to differ. Any object is the result of events, the happenings of which you may just...
April 25, 2022 at 06:59
You’re right, it isn’t inevitable and it isn’t justifiable, but nor is it entirely avoidable. Those of us who do exist are going to suffer to some ext...
April 25, 2022 at 05:47
The difference is that we do it only when it appears to be in our own best interests, when it helps us to get by, to survive, dominate, or procreate -...
April 24, 2022 at 16:10
Yes - specifically because of the softness (ie. 3D variability) of the cushion in relation to the ball. You can’t extend this same quality of softness...
April 24, 2022 at 09:53
No - the problem is that you don’t understand the qualitative aspect of a thought experiment. If we imagine coming across a ball in contact with a cus...
April 24, 2022 at 05:21
In that case there is no cause for the depression, because there is no existence of the cushion with any other shape than that in which the ball fits....
April 23, 2022 at 15:59
So why is seeking ‘happiness’ or ‘satisfaction’ the most important thing? ...and its this ‘locus of concretion’ that’s most important, right? Your ide...
April 23, 2022 at 09:38
I’m aware of that. And I’m saying that any kind of existence can appear burdensome and dissatisfying in relation to the illusion of ‘individual potent...
April 22, 2022 at 10:43
I’m not claiming efficacy, only potentiality. The difference is desire. I cannot have the life I want wrapped up in a bow and delivered to me, free of...
April 22, 2022 at 10:04
Survival is A result of the process, not THE result. And it’s the one we FEEL is most important, based on our fears. Any intent is in those writing th...
April 21, 2022 at 15:52
But the evolutionary narrative is not ‘survival’, as much as we wish it was. The reason humans are still here is due to a series of variably stable st...
April 21, 2022 at 06:30
From the website you cited: “Zooming out to look at the bigger picture this means that everything living today is the result of an unbroken sequence o...
April 20, 2022 at 15:06
Yes, and I’m disagreeing with you on this point. I think that consciousness is hindered to the extent that the organism is separated from its environm...
April 20, 2022 at 13:39
And I’ve repeatedly said so. My point is that we’re capable of living our lives without setting this evaluation in stone, and that it’s inaccurate to ...
April 20, 2022 at 03:12
That’s evidence of diversity, not of ‘survival’ as the reason for diversity. The question isn’t ‘why are all these other species extinct?’ It’s ‘why h...
April 19, 2022 at 16:13
There is insufficient evidence to assume that ‘survival’ is the purpose of evolution, just because it happens to be a result of natural selection. Nat...
April 19, 2022 at 12:56
No - natural selection is fact, Darwinian evolution is a theory, and ‘survival of the fittest’ is an interpretation. The idea that we evolved to be th...
April 19, 2022 at 09:16
You’re not answering my question. You can plan anything you want - that’s potential, not actual. Punching is a violation against an already materialis...
April 19, 2022 at 07:22
So... none of the above. You do realise that all of this is interpretation. Even Darwinian evolution and this notion of ‘survival of the fittest’ are ...
April 18, 2022 at 15:23
Interesting that you cite ‘human primal fears’ as the basis of a need for god - where do they fit into your list of ‘human mind, the scientific method...
April 18, 2022 at 09:52
Your sentence makes no sense. Something has to exist in order to violate a pre-existing dignity. Violate: 1. Break or fail to comply with (a rule or f...
April 18, 2022 at 09:05
Your fiction is pretend - the fact that life provides options aside from compliance is not. I have already agreed that ‘forcing someone into the world...
April 18, 2022 at 03:37
Then I would disagree with you here. Just because living things move in relation to a stationary environment does not render them separate from it. Th...
April 17, 2022 at 10:59
It is, but it refers to internally organised limits in particular, not just any boundary. The organism is not really separate from its environment, it...
April 16, 2022 at 16:10
That’s okay - I wasn’t implying that you were. But let’s say a collection of cells bounded by a Petri dish would not have these non-conscious sensory ...
April 16, 2022 at 10:38
I think perhaps identity is more than just boundedness. Integration seems to me the prerequisite here for consciousness. It’s hard to imagine a sea sp...
April 16, 2022 at 04:01
WTF? Completely unnecessary - sexist character attacks with zero substance are not welcome here. You want to write fiction - do it somewhere else, and...
April 16, 2022 at 02:54